General Will. Democracy, Capitalism

Any action that deliberately aims at some general Good can be said to be determined by a 'general will'. Thus, a monarch, e. g. Plato's Philosopher-King, or a similarly minded Oligarch, can possess a general will. Hence, what is specifically distinctive about Rousseau's General Will is its democratization, i. e. its principle that each citizen, and not no more than a mere few, can be motivated by the general Good. In contrast, in Smith's system, Self-Interest is the primary determinant of action, thereby indicative of a significant discrepancy between Capitalism and Democracy that continues to be ignored more than 200 years later.